EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation, Taxation

The formal signature of the new agreement will take somewhere in mid-2016, as soon as the Council has authorised the Commission's proposal. The agreement reflects the Principality’s political will to move towards greater tax transparency.

Under the new agreement, EU member states will receive the names, addresses, tax identification numbers and dates of birth of their residents with accounts in Monaco, as well as certain other financial information, including account balances.

The procedure envisaged complies with the new OECD and G-20 global standard on automatic exchange of tax information.

Stepping up information exchange will enable the tax authorities to better tackle fraudsters, at the same time acting as a deterrent for those who are tempted to hide income and assets abroad.

The EU signed similar agreements in 2015 with Switzerland (IP/15/5043), with San Marino (IP/15/6275), with Liechtenstein (IP/15/5929) and with Andorra (IP/16/288) in 2016.

EU officials welcomed the agreement. Thus, Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, expressed his belief that the agreement would mark the beginning of a new era between Monaco and the EU.

Both sides, he said, aimed to combat fraud for the benefit of honest taxpayers; therefore, the agreement is a step forward in achieving the EU aim in an efficient and fair manner.

Minister for Finance and Economy of Monaco, Jean Castellini, said that the agreement constituted a further example of the policy implemented by Monaco to combat international tax avoidance and evasion, as part of its commitment to conclude agreements which respect international standards developed by both the European Union and the OECD Global Forum, in terms of the exchange of information.

Reference: European Commission, press release IP-16-381 “Fighting tax evasions”, Brussels, 22 February 2016. In: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-381_en.htm?locale=en.

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